Cameron Diaz movie to be filmed in Hampton

By PATRICK LYNCH | 757-247-4534

HAMPTON - Richard Kelly, a Newport News native and movie director with a cult following, will film scenes at NASA Langley Research Center in January for an upcoming release starring Cameron Diaz.

"The Box" is based on a short story by sci-fi writer Richard Matheson, but Kelly wrote the screenplay, which reflects his family's Virginia roots and affiliation with the NASA center in Hampton.

In the mid-1970s Kelly's father Lane worked as an engineer at Langley, helping develop the camera for the Mars Viking program that would take the first close-up pictures of the Martian surface. In "The Box," a period piece set in the 1970s, one of the main characters, played by James Marsden, is a Langley engineer.

LOCAL NEWS

Hampton Roads readies for the digital TV switch

03:28 PM EST on Friday, December 14, 2007

Beginning in February of 2009, watching your favorite television show over the airwaves or on an old time, or analog TV, will be impossible.

In accordance with a government mandate, all television stations will only broadcast digitally. The move is slated to be good for the government, as well as the consumer.

“Digital television offers higher quality to the viewer,” said John Dolive, WVEC Director of Technology. “It enables us to transmit programs in high definition and it allows for greater spectrum efficiency, meaning that parts of the spectrum can be allocated to other services.”

Those with Cable TV, Fios or Satellite TV are ready to receive digital television, but if you still use a pair of rabbit ears, you will need to make other arrangements for television reception.

If you have an old analog TV, you can simply buy a new TV, because all new TVs have a digital tuner. Or, you can buy a digital converter and the government is issuing coupons to help defray the cost.

The converters will be arriving in stores next month.

“Most electronics retailers will have them,” said Jason Campbell at Best Buy. “As far as I know, they’re not on the market just yet, being that it’s coming in ’09, they’re still creating them, getting them ready for market.”

Since only 10% of the population still watches TV over the air with an analog TV, the government is not sending the coupons to everyone, but instead requires you ask for it.

Back to News

Teen gets life for shooting young mother in front of her kids

NORFOLK

Mike Weiss looked at one of the teenaged boys who shot and paralyzed his wife and then made a request of the judge. “All I ask is the same mercy they showed my wife and kids,” Weiss said. “The same mercy. Which is none.”

Weiss testified Thursday during the sentencing hearing of Keyanta Moore, one of four youths charged with shooting Dawn Weiss on May 2 during a home invasion robbery in the 8100 block of Redmon Road.

The robbers shot Weiss five times in front of her daughters, Kayla and Destyni, now 10 and 6. They were unharmed. The bullets fractured two of Weiss’ vertebrae and damaged her spinal cord, leaving her paralyzed from the chest down.

Circuit Judge Karen J. Burrell sentenced Moore to life in prison plus 173 years for the shooting and robbery of Dawn Weiss and for another home invasion a block away the day before. The guns used to shoot Weiss were stolen during the May 1 robbery, according to prosecutor Jim Entas. Moore and his cousin, Michael Moore Jr., shot Weiss.

The sentence far exceeded guidelines that suggested a term of 23 to 31 years. Moore was 15 at the time of the shooting; he is now 16.